I am thinking about getting kiteboarding lessons and very enthusiastic about it, but really worried about water quality in the bay area.Whenever I look at the water here (Candlestick point, san mateo, berkeley, etc.), it looks really dirty visually. Also, bacteria / contamination reports are pretty bad as well.

AFAIK, when you start learning kite/wind surfing, you fall in the water a lot, and you swallow a lot of water in the first few weeks during these falls (thru' the nose, if not mouth). So, how can this be healthy given the conditions? How are people doing this? Am I missing something here?

As a side note, is there any clean lake or something like this 1-2 hour close to bay area where you can learn this sport?

There are so many important things to be concerned about when learning, like not flying into a tree, that I think water quality is probably not worth worrying about. I never really thought about it while learning at Alameda and Third Ave.I swallowed my fair share of water and don't recall being the worse for it.

That said, I suppose it's not a bad idea to stay informed just in case there's a particularly alarming momentary development.

The only side effect I've ever gotten from the bay is a slight gassy bloated feeling after kiting maybe from a bit of water. Yes, the bay does not look like the Pacific deep blue on Maui or the cold coast here, but if you are at all enthusiastic about the sport and learning it, don't worry you will be fine.

Sherman Island and delta water? Another story completely, many of us have had side effects from the water there... If you drag around in the water or have big crashes, your sinuses will suffer. You don't get that with salt water in the bay though....

It's pretty bad. I think we are all poisoned and will die pretty soon. By no means should you even enter the water. You could be afflicted by kite-osis symptoms of which are rabid attention to any and all signs of wind, in-attention to detail and complete lack of focus and ability to perform normal daily routines when it's windy and often coupled with fatal anxiety syndrome when not windy.